Mary Butts
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Mary Franeis Butts, (13 December 1890 – 5 March 1937) also Mary Rodker by marriage, was an English
modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
writer. Her work found recognition in literary magazines such as '' The Bookman'' and ''
The Little Review ''The Little Review'' was an American avant-garde literary magazine founded by Margaret Anderson in Chicago's historic Fine Arts Building, published literary and art work from 1914 to May 1929. With the help of Jane Heap and Ezra Pound ...
'', as well as from fellow modernists, T. S. Eliot, H.D. and Bryher. After her death, her works fell into obscurity until they began to be republished in the 1980s.Jane Garrity, "Butts, Mary" in Faye Hammill, Ashlie Sponenberg and Esme Miskimmin (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of British Women's Writing, 1900-1950''. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. (p.37-38)


Life

Butts was born on 13 December 1890 in
Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...
,
Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
, the daughter of Mary Jane (née Briggs) and Captain Frederick John Butts. She had a younger brother, Anthony. In later life she and her brother were estranged. Her great-grandfather was Thomas Butts, the friend of
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...
, the poet and artist. She was brought up at Salterns, an 18th-century house overlooking Poole Harbour (described in her book, ''The Crystal Cabinet: My Childhood at Salterns''), where she became an admirer of the Blake watercolors which her father had inherited. In 1905 her father died; after which she was sent for a boarding school education at St Leonard's school for girls in
St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...
(1905–1908). In 1906 her mother sold the Blake paintings and in 1907 remarried. From 1909 to 1912 Mary studied at
Westfield College Westfield College was a small college situated in Hampstead, London, from 1882 to 1989. It was the first college to aim to educate women for University of London degrees from its opening. The college originally admitted only women as students and ...
in London, where she first became aware of her bisexual feelings. She did not complete a degree there, but was sent down for organising a trip to Epsom races. She went on to study at the London School of Economics, from which she graduated in 1914. She became a student of the
occultist The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mystic ...
Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
. She and other students worked with Crowley on his '' Magick (Book 4)'' (1912) and were given co-authorship credit. In 1916, she began keeping the diary which she would maintain until the year of her death. In the first years of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, she was living in London, undertaking social work for the
London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...
in
Hackney Wick Hackney Wick is a neighbourhood in East London, England. The area forms the south-eastern part of the district of Hackney, and also of the wider London Borough of Hackney. Adjacent areas of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, namely Fish I ...
, and in a lesbian relationship. She then met the modernist poet, John Rodker, a pacifist at that time hiding in
Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England about south-west of London. It is in Mole Valley, Mole Valley District and the non-metropolitan district, council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs ro ...
with fellow poet and pacifist Robert Trevelyan. In May 1918 she married Rodker, and in November 1920 gave birth to their daughter, Camilla Elizabeth. Butts also adopted Rodker's pacifism. She helped Rodker to set up as a publisher, and through him she met several modernist writers, including
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
,
Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...
,
Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...
,
Roger Fry Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and art critic, critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent ...
and May Sinclair. Shortly after the birth of her daughter she began a liaison with Cecil Maitland. During the early 1920s Butts was mostly in Paris, where she became friends there with several writers and artists, including the painter
Cedric Morris Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris, 9th Baronet (11 December 1889 – 8 February 1982) was a British artist, Visual arts education, art teacher and plantsman. He was born in Swansea in South Wales, but worked mainly in East Anglia. As an artist he is be ...
(a friend of her brother) and the artist, poet, and filmmaker
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...
, who illustrated her book, ''Imaginary Letters'' (1928). In mid-1921 she and Maitland spent about twelve weeks at
Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
's Abbey of Thelema in Sicily; she found the practices there shocking, and came away with a drug habit. In 1922 and 1923 she and Maitland spent periods near
Tyneham Tyneham is a ghost town, ghost village abandoned in 1943 and former civil parish, now in the parish of Steeple with Tyneham, in the Dorset (district), Dorset district, in the south of Dorset, England, near Lulworth on the Isle of Purbeck. In 2001 ...
, Dorset, and her novels of the 1920s make much of the Dorset landscape. In 1923 her book of stories, ''Speed the Plough and other stories'' was published; which was followed in 1925 by her first novel, ''Ashe of Rings'' (published by Robert McAlmon). ''Ashe of Rings'' is an anti-war novel with supernatural elements. In 1927, she and Rodker were divorced. In 1928, Butts published '' Armed with Madness'' a novel featuring experimental
Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
writing revolving around the
Grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...
legend. In 1930, she married the homosexual artist, William Park "Gabriel" Atkin or Aitken (1897–1937) (Mary then styled herself Mrs Aitken, but retained her maiden name for her writings). After a time in London and Newcastle, they settled in 1932 at Sennen on the
Penwith Penwith (; ) is an area of Cornwall, England, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former Non-metropolitan district, local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after one ...
peninsula on the western tip of
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
, but by 1934 the marriage had failed. Butts was an ardent advocate of
nature conservation Nature conservation is the ethic/moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values ...
, and attacked the pollution of the English countryside in her pamphlets ''Warning To Hikers'' and ''Traps For Unbelievers''. In 1933, at Sennen, she was introduced to the young novelist, Frank Baker, by George Manning-Sanders. Some time later, when Baker was living at Halamanning Valley with his friend John Raynor, she and Baker met again and became friends. They became members of the congregation of St Hilary's church, where Fr. Bernard Walke would produce nativity plays broadcast by the BBC. Shortly before her death, she was working on a study of emperor
Julian the Apostate Julian (; ; 331 – 26 June 363) was the Caesar of the West from 355 to 360 and Roman emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and author in Greek. His rejection of Christianity, and his promotion of Neoplatonic Hellenism ...
. She died on 5 March 1937, at the age of forty-six, at the West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance, after an operation for a perforated gastric ulcer. Her funeral was held at St Sennen's Church, Sennen. Her autobiography, ''The Crystal Cabinet'', was published a few months after her death. Her brother, Anthony, committed suicide in 1941 by throwing himself out of a window.


Legacy

A portrait of Mary Butts was painted in 1924 by
Cedric Morris Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris, 9th Baronet (11 December 1889 – 8 February 1982) was a British artist, Visual arts education, art teacher and plantsman. He was born in Swansea in South Wales, but worked mainly in East Anglia. As an artist he is be ...
, and a portrait drawing of her was made by Jean Cocteau (reproduced as a frontispiece to her memoir, ''The Crystal Cabinet''). Mary Butts's papers are held at the Beinecke Library at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
. A biography, ''Mary Butts: Scenes from the Life'' by Nathalie Blondel, was published in 1998.N. Blondel (1998), ''Mary Butts: Scenes from the Life'', McPherson & Company, Kingston, NY,


Published works

*1912: ''Magick (Book 4)'', by
Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
, Butts given co-authorship credit *1923: ''Speed the Plough and other Stories'' *1925: ''Ashe of Rings'' *1928: '' Armed with Madness'' *1928: ''Imaginary Letters'' *1932: ''Death of Felicity Taverner'' *1932: ''Traps for Unbelievers'' *1932: ''Several Occasions'' *1932: ''Warning to Hikers'' *1933: ''The Macedonian'' study of king Alexander of Macedon*1935: ''Scenes from the Life of Cleopatra'' *1937: ''The Crystal Cabinet: My Childhood at Salterns'' utobiography*1938: ''Last Stories'' Many of her books have been reprinted by McPherson & Co: * 1992: ''From Altar to Chimney-Piece: Selected Stories''. Preface by
John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
. * 1992: ''The Taverner Novels: Armed with Madness & Death of Felicity Taverner''. Preface by Paul West; afterword by Barbara Wagstaff. * 1994: ''The Classical Novels: The Macedonian & Scenes from the Life of Cleopatra''. Preface by Thomas McEvilley. * 1998: ''Ashe of Rings and Other Writings''. Preface by Nathalie Blondel. * 2014: ''The Complete Stories of Mary Butts''. Preface by John Ashbery; foreword by Bruce R. McPherson. * 2021: ''The Collected Essays of Mary Butts''. Edited and introduced by Joel Hawkes, with Bruce R. McPherson


References


Further reading

* D'Arfey, William (pseudonym of Anthony Butts & William Plomer), ''Curious Relations''. Fictionalised family memoirs of Mary Butts's brother. * Andrew Radford, 'Mary Butts and British Neo-Romanticism. Bloomsbury, (2014) * Nigel Jackson, 'Obscene Icons: Desacralization & Counter-Tradition in the Work of Mary Butts' in 'Sacrum Regnum II' (2013) * Mary Butts, ''The Journals of Mary Butts Edited by Nathalie Blondel'' (2000. Yale U.P.) * R. Reso Foy, ''Ritual, Myth and Mysticism in the Work of Mary Butts ...'' (2000) * Nathalie Blondel, ''Mary Butts Scenes from the Life'' (1998) * C. Wagstaff, ''A Sacred Quest: the life and writings of Mary Butts'' (1998) * Frank Baker, 'Mary Butts', in F. Baker, ''I Follow But Myself'' (1968), p. 114–148 * Mary Butts, xtracts from her journals, prefaced with an article, 'Mary Butts', by R. H. Byington and G. E. Morgan in ''Art and Literature''; 7 (1965 winter), p. 162- * Mary Butts, ''The Crystal Cabinet: My Childhood at Salterns'' (1937), reprinted (1988)


External links

* * * * Mary Butts Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Butts, Mary Frances 1890 births 1937 deaths People educated at St Leonards School Modernist women writers People from Poole English pacifists English Thelemites 20th-century English novelists British LGBTQ writers